Natalia Namaku, 25, is a South Sudanese pursuing Bachelor of Medical Laboratory at Clarke International University in Uganda - COURTESY

Ms. Natalia Namaku, a 25-year-old South Sudanese medical student in Uganda is now a part-time entrepreneur who has founded a cassava flour processing business to cater for her basic needs.

Namaku, who hails from Nzara County in Western Equatoria State pioneered Namaku Company Limited with only 350,000 Uganda Shillings – an equivalent of 100 US dollars.

In an interview with Eye Radio, she said she travels by boat to purchase cassava from local farmers in Mukono District east of the Ugandan capital Kampala.

“When I came to Kampala, I thought of what I can do instead of concentrating only on going to school and coming back home,” Namaku said.

“I tried to get some little money from what my parents could send me from home. I go with a boat from Lake Victoria up to Mukono to buy cassava, put it in a drum for three days then I dry and take it to the machine for grinding and start selling it.”

After processing the cassava flour, Namaku packs the flour and sells it to South Sudanese communities in Uganda.

She even said some of her products are sold in Juba and the rest are shipped to demanding customers in other parts of the world.

After buying sacks of cassava at 200,000 Uganda Shillings, she then processes and sells it at 350,000 shillings – making a profit of 150,000 ($50).

However, she faces numerous challenges such as transportation means.

“The challenges are crossing over Lake Victoria by boat is risky. Another issue is low market demand and the distance of my customers especially South Sudanese because they are not staying close to where I am.”

Namaku also makes a traditional dish of different delicacies to sell during community meetings, church and other social gatherings in Kampala.

Namaku was passionate about business from a tender age.

Before completing primary school in 2011, she used to sell mangoes, passion fruits, and pineapples to raise school fees at Nzara One Primary School.

At 17, Namaku said she was making porridge for sale to young men washing vehicles around Lake Nakpangau in Yambio town.

In 2018, she enrolled for a Bachelor of Medical Laboratory at Clarke International University in Kampala, to pursue the course of her dream.

“When I came to Kampala, I thought of what I can do instead of concentrating only on going to school and coming back home,” Namaku said.

Namaku is currently the Vice President of the South Sudanese Students’ Union in Uganda – a body responsible for students’ welfare.

She said she has decided to study Medical Laboratory to help her community, back in South Sudan.

“I decided to do this particular course to serve my community because we have limited qualified Lab clinicians’ secondly, to minimize giving inaccurate testing results which sometimes cause wrong prescriptions.”